


Passages of Time

by westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist



Category: The West Wing
Genre: Episode Tag, Episode: s03e02 Manchester Part II
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-01-25
Updated: 2004-01-25
Packaged: 2019-05-31 07:08:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15114323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist/pseuds/westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist
Summary: "Don't worry, Donna, it won't cut me 'cause it won't shatter likethe window did."





	Passages of Time

**Author's Note:**

> A copy of this work was once archived at National Library, a part of the [ West Wing Fanfiction Central](https://fanlore.org/wiki/West_Wing_Fanfiction_Central), a West Wing fanfiction archive. More information about the Open Doors approved archive move can be found in the [announcement post](http://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/8325).

**Passages of Time**

**by:** Kasey

**Character(s):** Josh  
**Category(s):** Post-Ep _Manchester2_  
**Rating:** YTEEN **Summary:** "Don't worry, Donna, it won't cut me 'cause it won't shatter like the window did."  


She winced when I hit my hand against the wall. 

Don't worry, Donna, it won't cut me 'cause it won't shatter like the window did. Not to mention the fact that...it's not me freaking out like it was then. I don't hear voices anymore, we can all rest a little easier just solong as we don't screw up and get reprimanded by a guy who just got here. 

Plus the President's getting screwed by the right and the people who think we're a health risk and we're out trying to kill babies for sake of winning the unwed poverty-stricken mother vote. 

Then there's the fact that I can't fix things even though I screwed 'em up a month or so ago. I got the guy his damn JOB, he'd listen to me, he'd do it without ever telling anyone in the media why. He's a good guy. 

'Course, I suppose so were the guys standing up for what they believed in with the tobacco thing 'cause maybe standing up for your beliefs is noble except wouldn't it be more noble if it was a bunch of Republicans standing up for Democratic beliefs? 

So now it's been almost a year and yet still she watches me...maybe moreso now than before because it's been almost exactly a year. She watches me and winces when I hit things out of frustration because she pictures it being the window in my apartment that I smashed at Christmas. She sees in her head memories of the hand wound I sustained that she took me to get stitches on, and she sees, I think, me hooked up to ventilators and heart monitors and all sorts of things I can't pronounce but that actually mean "Big thing with wires". 

We're all making amateur mistakes these days. Between CJ with Haiti and me with Tobacco and this thing we can't fix with RU-486. 

Except we COULD fix it. We COULD fix it only Leo won't let me even though he needs to because this is one of those things-...this isn't a-...this is a thing we NEED to fix. 

I could do it in a way that wouldn't be against the law. Of all of us, Sam knows the laws best, but there's me and I know all sorts of things about parliamentary procedure that no one knows, so there. 

So Donna came to get me and I was deep in the middle of my "What the hell's the point" funk that she feels the need to snap me out of even though it's not like she has any clue what's going on a lot of the time - she can recite it back to people so she feels smart but she doesn't get a lot of it. So I explain it to her in a placating sort of way. 

And this is one of those things that she vaguely understands, that she...she understands I'm pissed about the news cycle and the way they've screwed it up, she just doesn't get why, if we're for it, we don't just say so whenever we damn well please. And she doesn't get why I can't fix it. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch - or...farm, as the case may be - Bruno's trying to be Leo so Leo's trying to be...not-Leo because...oh, who the hell knows? 

It was just stress, Donna. I didn't hit my hand 'cause I'm trying to smash something to get the voices in my head to shut up, I...It's stress. Same as when CJ smashed her hand against the door after her Haiti-screwup. Same as when Sam hit his hand really hard against the wall when CJ yelled at him for Laurie and he couldn't move it well for a couple days. 

God, that was...forever ago. 

Or at least it seems like it. 


End file.
